The Webcomics Weekly #158: It’s not about the Lore but the Journey (10/12/2021 Edition)

The Webcomics Weekly is back in your life. Reading webcomics, like all storytelling, is really more about the journey and friends we made along the way. Not the arcane lore meant to justify why something like Diablo exists. To that end we have coverage of “The Journey” and “Lore Olympus,” as well as “Lavender Jack” this week.

The first three chapters of “The Journey” are mostly wordless, choosing to tell its story entirely through beautiful vistas, strange imagery, and lots and lots of close-ups on the main character’s eyes. Despite the strange nature of the story thus far, it’s very easy to follow since Castell has kept the cast in these opening chapters to our main character, the strange being who put the main character on her journey, and the one or two beings they meet in the jungle. There is also prologue text which helps frame the story, though I’m not sure who did the translation because it is a bit word salad-y.

That said, the frame it provides is just enough to provide the why of the story without getting too bogged down in the details and allows Castell’s art to shine. It’s a rough style, prioritizing shapes and impressions over clean lines and full colors, but this gives the whole story an ethereal look and feel, which is perfect for the kind of story it’s trying to tell.

I don’t always love this style, as some panels are more scratchy than others and it can be distracting to see the faint outline of a cheekbone in one panel but none in another. In fact, I think this style is most detrimental on the close-ups of the characters. On the environments, however, there is only beauty and wonder.

The space scenes are majestic and vast while the forest is lush but dark. There is an immensity to them which translates into a feeling of epic grandeur for the story. I don’t even know the main character’s name or why they’re specifically going on this journey but it doesn’t matter. Castell has gotten me invested in the journey as a journey through his visuals alone. I am bought into the narrative as it is and by the end of ‘Irreversible,’ I am bought into the character through their mistakes and fear and wonder.

The rest of the episodes of this first 24 episode season are either not out yet or cost coins, which is why I am only reviewing here the first three which are freely available for all. I would highly recommend checking “The Journey” out and seeing where it takes you.

We’re entering the final stretch of “Lavender Jack” season two (it ends on episode 88) and we FINALLY have an answer to who the Black Note is. And yet we don’t know who Cecil Cragen is, yet just the story about how various interlocking systems controlled him from the day he was born and turned them into a tool. Choosing to go with a new character this late in the game is interesting. On one hand you could argue it’s poor mystery writing, a cheat that the friendship duo between Eddy and Tom was, actually, a trio. There was just no way to really intuit that – I say this not having done an exhaustive reread and it is very likely there is some foreshadowing in hindsight. As of this moment I am rather pleased with this revelation and with it that Tom Broadfoot was like a Mission Impossible mask all along. It reinforces the Puppet Master (“Ghost in the Shell”) like anonymity of the Black Note – even during this flashback his face is masked in a way similar to his present appearance. It’s not that the Black Note has no history it is that this history is rejected and denied. It transforms him into the pure byproduct of the systems that made him a killer, with that history locked beneath the surface.

The revelation about Tom Broadfoot is probably the most horrifying thing this series has done thus far. It’s not so much the mechanical prosthetic we find at the close of the strip but continual shock on Crabb’s face as she tries to complete the sentence. The figure work is effective but the tiny shakes in the word balloon help to give this moment an affective core.

It’s kind of funny, episode 81-82 is dark but when this batch of strips started it was rather funny. Theresa Ferrier can’t help but be polite even as she yanks van Lund’s sandwich from him to establish dominance as they interrogate him. Even van Lund’s whole blame “society” line at the top got a solid chuckle, helped no doubt by Schkade’s use of perspective that minimizes all the time. Even the homecoming of Ferrier to the Manor has a comedic charm. And than things really turn into the false face society.

Just a note the cascading ‘M’ a the end of 82 both have a great deal of Frank Miller “Sin City” energy, but also evokes the classic poster to M directed by Fritz Lang.

What happens when you wake up in the underworld with no memory of how you got there? For the Persephone of “Lore Olympus,” you meet some good dogs and enjoy a healthy dose of flirtation with the King.

In the first installment of “Lore Olympus,” we left Persephone passed out in the Underworld. Her interactions with Hades in the opening pages are minimal, as we were introduced to the main players and modern version of Olympus in this retelling of the myth. Before Persephone wakes, she dreams of her mother locking her in a greenhouse, ostensibly for her own protection. Given that we already know Persephone’s mother is overprotective (and that this dream may be foreshadowing Persephone’s predicament in Hades?), the dream takes on additional emotional weight. Persephone’s usual pink self is shown in red, black, and white, emphasizing her distress. When she wakes, Persephone enters the cool blue tones of the underworld and wanders around, alone with her glowing pink hair trailing behind her.

At the end of episode six, Persephone meets the fearsome (spoiler: he’s really not) dog, Cereberus, and his intense (spoiler: he is, but he’s also a bit of a doofus?) owner, Hades. The panels with Persephone looking up at Hades are visually striking, with her unafraid eyes and his commanding presence at her back. It’s an intense scene that would make for an excellent romance novel cover. (Thinking of the upside-down Spider-Man kiss, here.) The intensity is then immediately undercut in episode seven when we see Hades’s point of view and watch him go down a totally relatable anxiety spiral. When the two leads finally meet and do their intros, the chemistry is undeniable. It’s an awkward meet-cute between a king and a goddess but it feels totally relatable, as Persephone asks for a coat and teases Hades about his dogs and his reputation for being a scoundrel. When Hades eventually takes Persphone home, the conversation circles back around to his reputation as Persephone has to admit that his behavior has been less-than-scoundrel-ish.

Although I have to admit I don’t love Persephone’s excessively cute-sexy character design, she gets in some great lines and I like how she’s able to take Hades’s intense-guy posturing down a notch. As for Hades himself, I’m a sucker for a bad boy with a heart of gold, so I’m rooting for him all the way. (I mean, he has his own realm, an impressive book collection, and seven dogs, what’s not to like?) As “Lore Olympus” progresses, I’m curious to see how the boy-meets-girl story will evolve and how the central relationship will deepen. For now, the romance is just getting started, and even though you can see the story beats coming a mile away, Smythe’s outstanding artwork and original style continue to be so impressive on their own that the comic is worth reading just for them alone.